1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to minnow buckets for carrying bait for fishing and provided with means for lifting the bait out of the water in the bucket for easy grasping by the fisher. More particularly, the invention relates to such a minnow bucket which can be manually carried and which also may be towed beside or behind a boat.
In order to keep them alive, minnows used as bait for fishing are carried in a bucket of water so that the minnows are maintained in an environment similar to that in nature. When using the available minnow buckets, the fisher must immerse a hand in the water of the minnow bucket and feel around under water until a minnow is encountered and grasped. This water is usually cold, and often frigid, such as during the early opening days of a fishing season. Immersing the hand into this cold water is uncomfortable and sometimes numbing to the fisher's hands, making retrieval of a minnow more difficult. The present invention is directed to an improved minnow bucket alleviating these inconveniences and discomfort. At the same time, an improved buoyant stucture is provided for towing the minnow bucket beside or behind a boat.
2. The Prior Art
Unger U.S. Pat. No. 3,009,281 discloses a minnow bucket having a substantially cylindrical casing, a pair of longitudinally positioned buoyant chambers positioned on either side of the casing, a spring loaded door for gaining access to the casing, and a weighted member for maintaining the attitude of the bucket in water with the access door in an upper position. The present invention represents a significant improvement over that of the Unger patent.